Thread: Last movie you saw - and rate it

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

Watched Free Solo last night. Great documentary, and that guy is a complete psycho.

One of the best documentaries ever... That part of the mountain where he has to do the leg kick makes me nauseous.

Originally Posted by Buff

One of the best documentaries ever... That part of the mountain where he has to do the leg kick makes me nauseous.

Even knowing he made it and just watching it on a regular TV at home I was nauseous and had sweaty palms. I might have passed out watching that on a big screen. His girlfriend is a complete saint for staying with him.

Originally Posted by Buff

One of the best documentaries ever... That part of the mountain where he has to do the leg kick makes me nauseous.

Mountain climber -- free climbing. I'm assuming it's a documentary about a guy that does that.

Originally Posted by Tned

Mountain climber -- free climbing. I'm assuming it's a documentary about a guy that does that.

Nothing gets past you!

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

Nothing gets past you!

I get sweaty palms and feet watching height scenes in movies, like the Dubai tower scene in Mission Impossible, or many that aren't even that extreme. My wife will sometimes laugh and say, "you probably don't like this scene" and I'll reply by drenching her arm with my sweaty palm.

I bet I would struggle to watch a mountain climbing/free climbing movie.

Originally Posted by BroncoWave

Nothing gets past you!

Well, before the comments about sweaty palms, my first guess was that it was a documentary about the making of the Hans Solo movie.

Originally Posted by Tned

I get sweaty palms and feet watching height scenes in movies, like the Dubai tower scene in Mission Impossible, or many that aren't even that extreme. My wife will sometimes laugh and say, "you probably don't like this scene" and I'll reply by drenching her arm with my sweaty palm.

I bet I would struggle to watch a mountain climbing/free climbing movie.

I need to take you skydiving!

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

I need to take you skydiving!

Not gonna happen, but on a related note.

To try and overcome my fear of heights, I decided to take flying lessons. Late '90s or early '00s. While I got a bit queasy the first lesson when the instructor was teaching me how to center the ball and showed the uncordinated flight when the ball isn't centered, I was pleasantly surprised that even at relatively low levels, when moving in the plane, even looking out the window, in a steep turn, etc., that my height issues never came into play.

Originally Posted by Tned

Not gonna happen, but on a related note.

To try and overcome my fear of heights, I decided to take flying lessons. Late '90s or early '00s. While I got a bit queasy the first lesson when the instructor was teaching me how to center the ball and showed the uncordinated flight when the ball isn't centered, I was pleasantly surprised that even at relatively low levels, when moving in the plane, even looking out the window, in a steep turn, etc., that my height issues never came into play.

Excellent! Perhaps a career in wingwalking then?

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

Excellent! Perhaps a career in wingwalking then?

I'll fly, if you round up some hotties in skimpy outfits. It would be worth re-upping my medical and going through biennial review (15 or so years late) to watch some hotties on my wings...

Originally Posted by Tned

I get sweaty palms and feet watching height scenes in movies, like the Dubai tower scene in Mission Impossible, or many that aren't even that extreme. My wife will sometimes laugh and say, "you probably don't like this scene" and I'll reply by drenching her arm with my sweaty palm.

I bet I would struggle to watch a mountain climbing/free climbing movie.

I'm mortified of heights, so stuff like that always freaks me out. Having said that, it was very well done and entertaining, worth a watch for sure.

Originally Posted by Buff

One of the best documentaries ever... That part of the mountain where he has to do the leg kick makes me nauseous.

If you listen to Rogan's podcast with Alex Honnold it really gives you a different view of the man. It's pretty crazy.

I re-watched "The Mission". The recent death of Ennio Marricone who scored the movie, reminded me of it. It's been at least 10 years since I've seen it, and I only saw it once.

9/10 Great, epic movie, if you have some background on what was going on. Full movie:

.

The symbolism and metaphor is just tremendous. Great acting, and brilliant and haunting score. The photography is just beautiful.

The only thing keeping it from scoring higher is that it either assumes that the audience knows a lot more about 18th Century South America & European & Catholic Church politics, or it just blindly and mistakenly leaves out a lot of explanation.

The film attempts to tell the story of the native Guarani (sp?) tribe and how they were caught up in a fight between Spain & Portugal along with Jesuit missionaries who were setting up missions among the Guarani at the time.

The needed background, is that these Jesuits had been setting up missions and converting and working closely with these native peoples in Spanish territory. But Spain and Portugal sign a treaty to end other fighting, and in that treaty Spain cedes much of this territory to Portugal.

Portugal allows slavery and slave trade, while Spain ostensibly does not. So, immediately these indigenous people are subject to being enslaved by the Portuguese. Prior to this Spain had already been turning a blind eye to slavers who were trapping these folks already. But the Jesuit Missions had started to put a stop to much of this and offered some protection of the Guarani.

The Jesuits protest this transfer, and in the movie a Cardinal is dispatched by the Pope to settle the dispute. In History, it was the Jesuit leader rather than the Pope who sent an emissary.

This Cardinal has to somehow balance not only this dispute, but also the threat of the Jesuit order itself being expelled from Spain and Portugal, and losing not only its credibility, but the existence of the Jesuit order altogether, if it fights these colonial powers on this transfer.

So, the Cardinal is faced with an impossible decision. Endorse the transfer, and knowingly send Guarani into slavery. Or fight it, cause the end of the entire Jesuit Order and in the end the Guarani are enslaved anyway.

If you don't know this background, the movie is kind of difficult to really follow. They probably should have spent some time setting this up. .. .even just a written narrative at the beginning spelling all this out "Star Wars 'A Galaxy far far away'" style.

With the news that Michael Keaton was reprising his role as and older Batman in the upcoming Flashpoint movie, I realized that I didn't own the original 1989 Batman so I went online to get it and ended up finding the whole 4 movie Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher set on BluRay for $15. My son had never seen them so I let him pick the order to watch since they aren't connected and we watched them in reverse order. Here are my ratings after not seeing these for years!

Batman & Robin 6/10: This movie almost works on a so bad its good level, but ultimately its campiness is more of a distraction and there isn't a lot of fun intentional or otherwise to be had. Bloated and overly long, the few saving graces in this film were Schwarzenegger's scene stealing Mr. Freeze and the fever dream production design. Like the 1960's Batman on cocaine with none of the charm or tongue-in-cheek humor. Too bad because Clooney was a good Bruce Wayne!

Batman Forever 8/10: Much better than I remember despite being by the same director as Batman & Robin. Not as dark or noir as Burton's offerings, and not as batshit crazy (pun intended) as the final installment. The movie starts with a fun action sequence featuring Tommy Lee Jones' Two Face robbing a bank and sets up the rest of the movie nicely from there. Even Jim Carrey who was in top over-the-top form during this movie gets a nice backstory setup for his perfectly cast role as The Riddler. We are also introduced to a new Batman played by Val Kilmer who slides into the cowl perfectly, and Chris O'Donnel's Robin adds a welcome element to the ensemble. I feel Tommy Lee Jones Two Face was more Joker-ish than the comic character, but he was "evil" enough to sell the part. Plus it had the perfect mid-90's soundtrack featuring Seal and U2. Plus Nicole Kidman in her prime is always nice.

Batman Returns 8.5/10: Its a minor miracle that this movie exists, and I can't think of a summer blockbuster before or since that was so strange. This movie pits Michael Keaton's Batman against Danny Devito as the Penguin who is running for Mayor while also secretly plotting to kill the first born of Gotham's elite, all while Catwoman (Michell Pfieffer) complicates matters by injecting her own agenda into the mix after being "killed" by Max Shreck (Christopher Walken) who is a corrupt businessman working with the Penguin after being blackmailed. Family fun for all in the summer of 1992! It feels right at home as a sequel to the wonderful 1989 Batman, though. Speaking of....

Batman (1989) 9/10: For all you people who love or hate the recent trend of comic book movies dominating the box office, you can thank this movie for that. Before this there was Superman: The Movie and Superman II that tried to take the comic genre to the next level, but Batman '89 was the first to take it seriously. The look and feel, the Danny Elfman score, the soundtrack by Prince... Keaton, Nicholson, all of it came together in the perfect pop-culture explosion in June of 1989 (which was a great summer for movies all around) and the genre owes much to this movie. Most of it still holds up well today, and damn if the Batwing rising up to meet the moon still doesn't give me chills. My son was the same age watching this with me yesterday as I was when it came to theaters.

Ok, that was my 4 disc bluray set journey down memory lane! Thanks for indulging me. That series started when I was in 5th grade and ended when I was in high school which is crazy to think about now!